Organization XIV - The Story So Far

The twisted castle looms over them, but there's a sense of calm in the emptiness of the courtyard. Backed up by Dispatch's senses, it definitely seemed safe enough to take a rest. They would need their strength for whatever was waiting for them up ahead.

Jackie lightly jogs over to a wall, and slowly slides down against it, finally coming to a stop as she's seated on the floor. Her spear lays across her lap, and she cheerily pats the spot beside her. "Come now, let's take the gift we're given. Let's give our gracious, patient host a good fight and have a little chat, shall we? For starters, how and where did you learn to fight? And what is... or was, your world like?" Jackie's eyes gain that mysterious little glint in them, the kind she'd gotten a few times before when she gets excited. "I wanna know about you and your people."

Dispatch shrugged, taking a seat beside her and laying his sword on the ground. "A'right, that should be easy enough. Well, to start off with...prob'ly be easier to talk about my people. They were a warrior race, always lived for the next fight, and the stronger their enemies, the better. Problem with that, though, was they'd fight just because they could, and not just each other, either."

He sighed. This might be harder than he'd thought. "See, there was this one guy, strong enough to wipe out the whole planet if he wanted, and we all worked for him. Some of us 'cause we had to, some of us 'cause it was a good way to fight more strong guys. Our job was to go to a bunch of different planets and...let's just say clean 'em out. None of us ever really thought much about it. In my case, I don't even remember that not being my job. It was just something I grew up doing. I kinda remember my dad not being too big on the whole thing, and I tried letting a handful of the natives go a few times. Never went well, for me or for them. He died in battle when I was real young, though. Most of us didn't really live to be too old what with the whole fight-lust thing.

"After a while I was assigned to a squad, and we got real close over the years. There were four of us, and it was our team leader who told me I should start training with a sword. We were in a real tight spot one time and I just sorta grabbed one and started swinging, must have impressed him. So I started using a sword after that. I was...probably less than ten at the time. Yeah, actually way less than that. Lost our world when I was fourteen or so and I've been taking mercenary work since then with anyone who might have a lead to where my team is."

He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned back against the wall. Probably better not to mention the whole time-travel bit. Might not go over well. "Think that's about it. Weird to think how long it's been since I've seen 'em. Ha, they'd never recognize me now, even if I did find 'em. It's crazy."

Jackie leaned back up against the wall, looking up and listening attentively to Dispatch's entire story, rather shocked and surprised with how much detail he put into it. First impressions might not be everything after all. Searching, for someone dear, and a father... That she could feel, deep in her heart, and idly wondered if he felt the same. "I would have always thought Father would never have been rid of me, until my own planet collapsed out from under me. Losing your father at that young of an age... it must have been hard, but I imagine you weren't exactly left to dwell on that, with the fighting thing.

"And then, there's... well, there's that tyrant you mentioned, or so I imagine. As strong as you are, as dedicated to fighting as all of you were, none of you could fight him? I don't have any idea of what that was like, the Cliffs were always ruled by just and good and kind kings and queens, but the idea...." Jackie bit her lip. "The idea to stomp on someone with the heel of your boot, a living being, makes me furious. I'd have lashed out and died for sure, under him. At the very least I'd have earned a bit of a beating.

"A team, though... I don't remember, but it seemed like you'd been looking for someone, and for a while, but fourteen? How old are you, exactly?"

Dispatch chuckled. "Would you believe me if I said I don't remember? When you're wandering through space, it's hard to keep track of time. Lemme think about that one for a minute..."

He breathed out slowly as he tried to think back, and started mumbling to himself. "Let's see...think the log in my pod said...three-ish years...? Then where I am now it was...three more years since the last big thing, and going around there before that...six or seven, maybe...? No, less than that, but it was something like it...was it really that long? Geez..."

Jackie raised an eyebrow. Whatever he was, his genes were good or his race was poor at showing age. Perhaps he wasn't even human, and his race was naturally long-lived. Whatever the case, he'd fought his whole 27 years of life and that struck Jackie as profoundly... Tiring. 
"If you've been around that long, I suppose I should drop the nickname "Wild Child" and stick to "Captain" or "Sir". I'm a mere 23 years old myself, and I've got another few months on me before I tick that number upwards myself. 
"Space... We never got or thought about space travel, but that sounds gorgeous... Days or weeks, world to world, in a cozy little home... Oh, I could have read a library's worth just travelling for that long!"

"Whoa, now," said Dispatch. "Older than you or not, I've never been anyone's captain. I pretty much fumbled my way through 'technician' most of the time and man, tech has come a long way since I've even touched any kind of ship. Besides, my old pod wasn't as, uh...comfortable, as the one we've got now. It was pretty much big enough for me to sit in, and that's about it. Half the time we just slept through the trip."

He said it like it was some huge, miserable thing, but even the thought of long trips with his squad, training together on the occasion that they got a real four-person craft brought a stream of refreshing memories. Like how his arm had been broken when they first decided their hierarchy - being the youngest, he was at the bottom, of course. And only one step above was the loudest mouth on the team, who'd proposed the whole thing to begin with. Good times.

Jackie watched the slow ghost of a smile spread over the man's lips, smirking to herself all the same. Travelling together, on a ship... she had one of her own at this point in time, she might even be capable of real space travel. The idea seemed unreal to her, as though it were still just a flight of fancy even still, but it excited her. It pulled at some deep core of her being, the thrill of seeing something new, unknown, and being a veritable pioneer in a field.

"Someday soon, Wild Child, once we've figured out this Heartless nonsense, and we've got some time, I'd be more than happy to help you look for your crewmates. I'd really love to meet them, and to travel the stars with you and Gestalt." Pausing for a moment, she stood up, foregoing the use of her hands as support and instead using her momentum to spring up and forward. "But for right now, we still need to thank our host for the warm welcome." She held out a hand to Dispatch, her smile still plain as day.

Dispatch took her hand, hoisting himself up somewhat lazily. Travel the stars with those two, huh? He glanced up, and a thought occurred to him. He'd already searched as far and wide as he could. Were these even the same stars? If they were, then how come he'd never found anywhere like this before? And if not, then could he get back where he came from? He blinked, pushing the thought away. For the moment, that wasn't important.

So he smirked back. "Oh yeah. If that was the warm-up, I gotta wonder what their boss is like. Time to find out!"

The gate slid aside as they approached, beckoning them into the twisted castle. Within, it was surprisingly well-lit for a bastion of darkness, overrun with Heartless. The corridor they were in led to a round room with a raised spot to the side, upon which a throne sat. In the middle of the room, there was a huge crack in the floor, big enough for a grown adult to fall into, leading to pitch-blackness. Torches dotted the columns surrounding the floor, which was sunken in, with the edges of the room relatively higher. It gave the impression of a small arena, like they were spectators.

Thankfully, there had been no Heartless in the hallway; now, though, something approached from the corridor opening opposite them. It was a tiny, barking little thing, bounding towards them as fast as its little legs could take it. Like a round, stubby dog, with a spiked collar around its midsection and its tongue rolling out of its wide, jagged mouth. Definitely a Heartless. It tumbled down into the center of the room, heading straight for the duo... only to find the wall too high to scramble up to actually reach them. It just barked impotently from below.

More of its brethren began to pour out of the corridor, falling into the middle of the room and unable to really attack. Before long, it was extremely full of mad dogs. The sound of their barking grew almost deafening as they clamored over one another, unable to reach their target.

Dispatch gave a look down at the pitiful resistance, somewhere between disdain and pity. "So, uh...they can't reach us. The door's right over there. Should we even bother?" These were the same creatures that they'd been fighting the whole time, but on the other hand, it would be far less time and effort to just bypass them, and honestly it didn't look like they'd even put up an interesting fight. All in all, the room seemed like a waste of time.

Just then, something fell to the ground behind them. It sounded incredibly heavy and metallic, like one of those big guys from outside, but carrying a set of pots. The creature, a top-heavy knight carrying a shield with an angry hound's face, crashed into the floor behind them. There wasn't enough space for it to have been hiding in the corridor; it had to have appeared from thin air.

Regardless, just after Dispatch spoke, it swung for them with its massive shield, smashing the doorway in the process, with the aim to launch them into the middle of the room without warning. The little rabid-dog-like Heartless eagerly awaited the chance to overwhelm them and sink their teeth in.

"Yeep!" Dispatch yelped, caught off guard by the enemy's sudden appearance, and stumbled backwards...straight into the dog-pit.

Immediately, they were on him, leaving him no time to draw his sword. With no other options, he simply punched at whichever of the creatures dared to come close, but there were too many to fend off perfectly, and as he struck those in front of him, more attacked his back. On their own, each was no threat at all, but as they pooled their strength, their attacks began to sting. It was still more annoying than dangerous, but he still couldn't just let himself get overwhelmed.

He sent out a pulse of ki, throwing the mongrels back. "Alright, enough of this!" A few of the enemies were destroyed, probably the ones he'd already knocked back, but that was the opening he needed to draw his sword.

Jackie was tossed to the air, having attempted in vain to try and block the oncoming hit. Not expecting the massive force and weight behind such a swing, her flight was inevitable, though short lived as she performed a three-point landing down in the pit. Scowling back up at the shielded behemoth, she turned her attention to the angry mass of small dogs, and grimaced slightly. Even an abomination like them still looked like a dog, and what she needed to do wasn't pleasant. Steeling herself, she one-hands her spear, reverse-choking up on the grip, before swiping at the fiends. Keeping her distance would be key here, and she needed to keep both groups visible. So long as she did that, she could still conserve her magic.

The dogs continued their attempts to take them down; thankfully, they weren't very smart. At least for now, they weren't making attempts to pin down or surround either combatant. Meanwhile, the guardian on the ledge lumbered around, staying on the edge either of them strayed closest to. It made no attempts to close in on them, itself; the thing was too slow to really come after them. It looked like it as just guarding the walls of the arena, keeping them trapped in the pit.

As one of the Heartless lunged at Dispatch, it tripped and found itself caught in the gaping crack in the floor, helpless to dislodge itself. Meanwhile, the heavy bruiser twirled the shield in its massive hand, the face emblazoned on its front snarling as it shot a ball of fire out at Jackie.

Had he not been surrounded, Dispatch would have rolled his eyes. He swung his sword down, smashing the Heartless that had gotten stuck in the floor, and spun his sword in a circle around him, destroying several more. They weren't especially durable; he'd been in more trouble fighting the fat ones and the cannons at the gate. These crazy dogs might have had numbers, but they didn't have the power or brains to make use of them. Really, they were annoying at the worst.

Fire? Magic? What sorcery was this? Fearing the unpredictability of a Heartless that not only seemed physically imposing, but could have other tricks up its sleeve, Jackie dodged to the right, rolling on the floor and springing up far away from the fireball. Stabbing at the dogs, she tightened her grip on her spear as fear took hold. They're so puny... could we be playing into their trap? Jackie chanced a glance behind her, before stabbing two more of the dog heartless. "Careful. They might be up to something. This feels... coordinated."

The dogs began to bark loudly as they attacked. It wasn't exactly an ear-splitting sound, but the cacophony wasn't fun to listen to. And seeing that its spell had failed, the lumbering knight slowly scanned for targets, preparing another spell. This one was a jagged crystal of ice, and it came much fast than the fireball, hurtling through the air. This one was aimed for Dispatch.

Distracted by his continued fight with the large army of small dogs, as well as their annoying yapping, Dispatch failed to even notice the enemy's attack until it struck him. He was shoved back slightly, and while the damage was notable, it wasn't severe.

He then turned his attention to the shield-monster. It was pretty similar to the fat guys from before. The same strategy would probably work, but not if he couldn't get an opening to leave without these ankle-biters piling onto him, and there was still an ocean of them between him and the nearest ledge. In fact, he'd been pushed closer to the center. This was definitely more of a pain than the horde at the entrance.

Jackie was noticing that the more defensively they played, and the more they focused on the little ones, the more they got pushed back, and the more tense the both of them seemed to become. Jackie seemed to sense that Dispatch, after taking a hit, glanced upwards to the shield-monster -- the Defender, it seemed to be -- more than he had been. Jackie had frankly had enough of the dogs as well, and decided that with her speed and agility, she might be able to distract them for just long enough. "Take the shot, Wild Child. I've got this down here." And with no more than that, Jackie let one of the dogs bite the butt of her spear, and waved it for the others to see, before darting off and trying to kite the swarm around the arena. Not the brightest or best idea, but unconventional enough that the dogs might try to play along.

Having seen Dispatch take a hit, the rest of the dog-like Heartless were more ready to dismiss him, opting to focus on the thing waving across their field of vision. While three of them stayed on the Saiyan to try and take him down, the rest all paraded after Jackie. It was hard to ignore one of their number being swung around on the end of a pole like a bulbous, evil chew toy.

Pleased at having weakened Dispatch, the edge-guardian Heartless hefted its shield once more, twirling it briefly before grasping it again, the face on the front shooting out another fire spell. It was the same as the one fired at Jackie before; slower than the ice fragment, but by no means plodding. It appeared to be focusing on finishing off its target for now.

Dispatch, while surprised that almost all of the dogs had decided to leave him alone, kept his focus firmly on this shielded Heartless. He swung his sword around him in a circle, a simple spin attack he'd know how to do for as long as he could recall, but rarely felt the need to use - how often was he surrounded, after all? The fireball was upon him then, but deflected off the blade, finally giving him his opening.

He jumped, flipping back up onto the ledge above, and pointed his sword at the monster. "Just you and me now, ya...shielded...coward." He'd really have to work on his one-liners. That was barely a step above "nasty turd." He shook his head and bounded forward, slamming his sword against the enemy's shield, hoping to knock it back like he had the ones that came before.

It rebounded, barely moving the shield. The Heartless holding it didn't seem terribly bothered by the attack, either. The face on its shield tightened its mouth into a sneer as the creature hefted it and tried to slam the shield's bottom edge down onto Dispatch. There wasn't much room to dodge backwards while staying on the ledge, and some of the dogs had noticed the altercation, breaking off from the pack and starting to circle over to where Dispatch was. If he fell back in, things could get nasty. And a frontal assault didn't appear to work at all on this goliath.

Crap! Dispatch clutched his shoulder as the shockwave vibrated through his arm. But no way was he falling back into that pit. He threw himself to the side, rolling somewhat roughly out of the way. What even was this thing? Plenty of people had caught or deflected his sword in his time, but no one had ever just rejected a slash like that before. Dispatch stared hard at the creature, hoping to gauge some way he could get around it; he really didn't plan to waste all his energy flipping all over the place, and if that shield could withstand his sword, even a big blast probably wouldn't help enough.

Seeing him move to the side, the lumbering creature spun in place, aiming to bat him away with the face of his shield. Dispatch's rolling motion kept him low to the ground, the swing missing him completely. After it noticed that it had failed to damage its enemy three times in a row, the creature reared back, aiming to charge right at the Saiyan and plow into him.